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Have you ever wanted something or someone so bad you would do anything for it, even kill? “Some Dreamers of a Golden Dream” by Joan Didion is about a murder trial that captivated the town of Rancho Cucamonga, California, in October 1964. Didion focuses on a woman, Lucille Miller, who ends up burning her husband, Gordon Miller, to death in their 1964 Volkswagen chasing her golden dream. According to Joan Didion in “Some Dreamers of a Golden Dream”, Lucille Miller is convicted of the murder of her husband Gordon Miller because there is too much substantial evidence put against her. In order to convey the purpose of this story of the “Golden Dream” Didion has to show the side that is not always good, she shows how things like greed and lust take over and motivates people to do the inconceivable.
Lucille Miller and her family lived a seemingly perfect life in a small town in California called Rancho Cucamonga on Banyan Street but a lot lay under the surface. Lucille’s husband Gordon had a good friend Arthwell who caught her eye “December of 1963 Lucille had begun an affair with the husband of one of her friends” (Didion, 40). Arthwell Hayton had a knack for money and was good with people, traits that Lucille’s husband lacked. In the months leading up to the murder of Gordon Miller, Lucille, and Arthwell began to sneak around with each other doing things such as writing letters to one another, going out to lunch, and late-night drives. The beginning of this affair showed Lucille a glimpse of a life she’d never have, or never have with Gordon that is. In the story, Didion mentions that in the days leading up to the end of the affair, their relationship became something straight out of the “novels of James M. Cain” (Didion, 42). It was full of threats and blackmail. Lucille and Arthwell got into arguments about what they were going to do to ruin each other’s reputations in town, there were threats about going to the church and to the sheriff. Their break was anything but the conventional method and nothing less than immature, the couple behaved as if they were little kids competing to get their friends to pick their side while making the other look as bad and crazy as possible.
“A woman motivated by ‘love and greed’. She was a ‘manipulator’. She was a ‘user of people’ ”(Didion, 48). Lucille was someone who could make the outside world believe she was a loving and caring wife who was very supportive of Gordon and his struggle with depression and suicide but in reality that took a toll on her. Lucille wanted her “golden dream”, she wanted the bigger house on the better street. She dreamed of the lavish life but her husband could not provide that which he gave her a glimpse of because reality had set in all too fast and that bigger house on a better street put him in debt. So Lucille did the only rational thing, come up with a plan to receive Gordon’s $80,000 in insurance money and collect another $40,000 in double indemnity so she killed her husband and attempted to make it look like an accident but she made some big mistakes, big enough to cause the detectives to come out. The detectives were there because they needed to give the crime scene “more than a routine attention were certain apparent physical inconsistencies” (Didion, 37). Instead of Lucille taking the easy way out and going through with the divorce they had discussed a year earlier she decided to kill her husband. Lucille was later found guilty because of the inconsistencies found at the crime scene and was sentenced to death row but that later got repealed when new knowledge of her being pregnant came about. Lucille spent time in prison with some of the most infamous murderers in California until granted parole in 1972.
This murder by Lucille Miller, a seemingly devoted Protestant Christian, committed six of the seven deadly sins. Lust, greed, laziness, wrath, envy, and pride. Lust because as the bible defines it says “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28) in Lucille’s case she committed this sin when she “begun an affair with the husband of one of her friends” (Didion, 40). Greed per the bible is “having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more” (Ephesians 4:19) Lucille however committed this sin when she began to dwell on the fact that if Gordon died and it was ruled indeed an accident she would inherit “his $80,000 in insurance… another $40,000 in double indemnity and straight accident policies” (Didion, 49). Laziness according to the bible is “The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway” (Proverbs 15:19) meaning that someone who is lazy, their route is filled with obstacles but those who walk “upright” shall coast freely like on the highway. Lucille however got lazy and her road was filled with obstacles as she attempted to kill her husband considering the fact that the crime scene needed “more than a routine attention were certain apparent physical inconsistencies” (Didion, 37). Wrath “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1), Lucille was filled with indignation from her husband’s depression when he “threatened suicide” (Didion, 32). Envy “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Peter 2:1-2). Mrs. Miller envied the idea of a bigger house on the better street and she would do anything to get that including killing her husband to receive his money.
In conclusion, Joan Didion conveyed Lucille Miller as the murderess of her husband because of the amount of substantial evidence against her in “Some Dreamers of a Golden Dream”. Didion had to prove constantly throughout this story that the golden dream causes people to do the inconceivable. Lucille Miller was a struggling woman who truly wanted to live her dream but got caught up in the love and greed of this crazy world. Lucille planned on simply murdering her husband, making it look like an accident, and receiving his insurance money along with double indemnity but somewhere along the line she made a mistake and got caught. In “Some Dreamers of a Golden Dream” Joan Didion uses religious innuendos to explain the false promises that lead people to California and the temptations to sin make them stay.
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